Tamarac politicians’ appalling abuse of taxpayers

The guiding principle of city government should be to always do what’s in the best interest of the residents. The current Tamarac city commission apparently believes in only doing what benefits commissioners. That is appalling.

I’ve recently opened the Sun-Sentinel to read articles with headlines such as More perks proposed in a city that lavishes its leaders with cash and an editorial that said Politicians in Tamarac need to stop ripping off city taxpayers. Ripoffs such as giving each commissioner a $15,000 annual travel fund (which only Mayor Michelle Gomez rightly voted against).

That’s in addition to the $700 car allowance and the $25,000 each commissioner gets for “personal initiatives.” The commission has more personal money-grabbing planned, as the Sun Sentinel reports, including full health insurance, an education fund, etc. If you can stomach sitting through a commission meeting, you’ll see petty arguments between commissioners, shouting matches, marathon meetings lasting five, six or more hours stretching into the wee hours. My guess is the good people of Tamarac could live with commissioners behaving like spoiled kids, but we shouldn’t have to live with them blatantly abusing taxpayers and using city money as if it’s their personal kitty. I echo the Sun-Sentinel’s call for Tamarac commissioners to rescind the $15,000 slush fund as well as their $25,000 personal promotion money ripoff. If they can’t do that, then I call on the commissioners to resign, and let the good people of Tamarac replace them with people who will work for our interests, not theirs.

Doug Maesk, Tamarac

The author was a Tamarac city commission candidate in 2018.